Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Unlike in the aftermath of the Second World War when the
displaced peoples of Europe where cared for by the victorious Allies through
various programs, such as the Marshal plan and programs by NGOs, which helped
people either re-establish themselves in the home country, return to their
country of origin, or be accepted as new citizens in Allied Nations, we have
these past many, many years failed to efficiently, compassionately address the
millions of displaced people, displaced by oppressive violence, civil wars,
famine, lack of work with which to earn a living and thereby raise a family.

Mostly from African and Middle Eastern countries, Europe is
inundated; mostly from Central America, but increasingly from South America as
well as the Caribbean, the United States is facing a tsunami of people,
desperate, frightened people, not unlike Europe; Canada, triggered by a frankly
ill-conceived statement by the Prime Minister, is experiencing – like the US
and Europe but so far on a dramatically smaller scale – a river of the
desperate illegally crossing the border.

This global influx of desperate people – men, women,
children, has no disciplined order to it, thus the thousands who drown in the
Mediterranean, the women and children trafficked by the evil men who sell
vulnerable human beings, the small but no less dangerous numbers of criminals
and terrorists who mingle with the desperate and then disappear within our
countries, not to surface until they rob, rape, do an act of terror – is
unending.

Even the most charitable of citizens in the countries
inundated by this flood of desperate people are feeling the strain and
demanding governments get some control over things, while on the one extreme
the disingenuous liberal mindset wants a world without borders – which will be
a world without any rule of law or common sense – and on the other extreme the
rightist mindset wants everyone deemed not to be like us, sent packing.

President Trump, both in a tweet and a recent speech is
adamant he does not want his country “infected” by illegal immigrants.

This reveals a not uncommon attitude which fails to see
frightened, desperate, of perhaps a skin colour, language, religion not like
us, as human beings, as children of God, just as we are.

Do not oppress and act ungodly toward the resident alien,
the orphan or the widow. [Jer. 22:3] Do not rob the poor because they are poor,
nor crush the needy at the gate…[Prv.22;22] Father of the fatherless, defender
of widows—God in his holy abode, God gives a home to the forsaken…[Ps.68:6,7]
The prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest till it reaches
its goal; Nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds…[Sir.35:21]

Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who
are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty
and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed
me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’Then the righteous will answer him and say,
‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When
did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them
in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers
of mine, you did for me.’” [Mt.25:34ff]

It is from the above words of God we must, as Christians,
using the power of love’s creative, compassionate imagination, work
individually, as communities, as voice for the voiceless to push the body
politic and world leaders to seriously address, at their source, the wars,
unemployment, famine, epidemics, violent oppression of people which forces
thousands upon thousands of our brothers and sisters to risk everything to flee
to countries they deem safe, welcoming.

We cannot ignore the thousands of bodies floating in the
Mediterranean, be deaf to the wailing of the more than 2,000 children being
held in cages, separated from their parents who are caged elsewhere in the
United States – protecting our borders, seeking to prevent illegal immigration
should not be at the cost of traumatizing little children.

When the AIDS epidemic seemed unstoppable scientists around
the world worked tirelessly to find Patient Zero, in a word where did it start;
when Ebola was ravaging African nations, the same thing was done: find the
source and work backward from the source to find a cure.

We need to follow the trail of bodies from our borders back
to where this massive movement of populations unfolds, find the triggers,
address the triggers – for like after WWII when the clear majority of those
displaced by the war just wanted to return to their homeland, so would most of
the current displaced peoples return to their homeland if the causes of their
leaving could be addressed and eliminated.

In his 2017 Christmas homily Pope Francis teaches us:
…..Mary and Joseph found themselves forced to set out. They had to leave their
people, their home and their land, and to undertake a journey in order to be
registered in the census. This was no comfortable or easy journey for a young
couple about to have a child: they had to leave their land. At heart, they were
full of hope and expectation because of the child about to be born; yet their
steps were weighed down by the uncertainties and dangers that attend those who
have to leave their home behind……So many other footsteps are hidden in the
footsteps of Joseph and Mary. We see the tracks of entire families forced to
set out in our own day. We see the tracks of millions of persons who do not
choose to go away but, driven from their land, leave behind their dear ones. In
many cases this departure is filled with hope, hope for the future; yet for
many others this departure can only have one name: survival. Surviving the
Herods of today, who, to impose their power and increase their wealth, see no
problem in shedding innocent blood.

Towards the end of the film The Day After Tomorrow, after in
the film the entire northern hemisphere has been plunged into a new ice age and
the survivors, who have lost everything except their lives, flee south: the
character of the President says: “The fact that my first address to you comes
from a consulate on foreign soil…is a testament to our changed reality. Not
only Americans…but people all around the globe are now guests in the nations…we
once called the Third World. In our time of need, they have taken us in and
sheltered us.”

If we keep rejecting our brothers and sisters today, fleeing
towards the north, how shall we be received should the day come when we must
flee south?

Monday, June 11, 2018

Last week the media repeatedly re-told the stories of two
recent suicides by celebrities, mostly stating that “she died, he died”, when
the tragic fact is she killed herself, he killed himself.

The moment immediately prior to the act itself must be the
most alone time for any human being. It is the moment when the mind is filled
with poisoned thinking and lies, the emotions are in profound darkness and
hopelessness, and in that aloneness the yearning to be freed from the pain
disables rational thought and the weakened will chooses to stop the pain,
without the person having any prior experience of the finality of their action,
for death is a one of.

Once the act is done it is final.

Time we avoid the almost banal word: suicide and name it
truthfully: self-murder.

There was a time, before the development of modern
psychiatry, when it was assumed self-murder was a purely free-will act.

The openness of the Church to what can be learned over the
ages from greater understanding of human emotions, impact of trauma upon a
person’s ability to endure physical and emotional pain, put an end to the
erroneous understanding of self-murder always being a purely free-will act.

That said in our day the issue has become complicated by, in
Canada for example, the legalization of doctor assisted self-murder.

Truly we are deep in the cold darkness of the culture of
death.

Often there is intense social pressure, lack of a vibrant
social life, in the lives of individuals who act alone to self-murder, while
often familial pressure, upon the infirm and the elderly forces them to chose
assisted self-murder.

The Church teaches: Everyone is responsible for his life
before God who has given it to him. It is God who remains the sovereign Master
of life. We are obliged to accept life gratefully and preserve it for His
honour and the salvation of our souls. We are stewards, not owners, of the life
God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of……[Catechism of the
Catholic Church #2280]

At the same time the Church takes compassionate note of the
fact that: Grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of
hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one
committing suicide. We should not despair of the eternal salvation of persons
who have taken their own lives. By ways known to Him alone, God can provide the
opportunity for salutary repentance. the Church prays for persons who have
taken their own lives. [see op. cit. paras: 2282,83]

St. John Paul II reminds us: To concur with the intention of
another person to commit suicide and to help in carrying it out through
so-called "assisted suicide" means to cooperate in, and at times to
be the actual perpetrator of, an injustice which can never be excused, even if
it is requested. In a remarkably relevant passage Saint Augustine writes that
"it is never licit to kill another: even if he should wish it, indeed if
he requests it because, hanging between life and death, he begs for help in
freeing the soul struggling against the bonds of the body and longing to be
released; nor is it licit even when a sick person is no longer able to
live". …. euthanasia must be called a false mercy, and indeed a disturbing
"perversion" of mercy. True "compassion" leads to sharing
another's pain; it does not kill the person whose suffering we cannot bear.
[cf. The Gospel of Life, Ch. III, para. 66]

No government can morally legislate any laws which
contravene Divine Law, therefore such laws require Christians, indeed everyone
who acknowledges or at least knows of Divine Law, to disobey such ersatz laws.

When it comes to human beings, as acting persons we have
free will.

Killing ourselves is
the ultimate abuse of the freedom gifted to us.

If the decision has
already been made it is well nigh impossible to prevent because such of our
brothers and sisters who have made the decision tend to be extremely capable of
keeping their choice hidden until family and friends are left with the profound
pain of not having prevented death.

The violation of charity which is constitutive of
self-murder is made visible in the survivors, family and friends, blaming
themselves for something NOT their fault.

The command of Jesus to love one another as we love
ourselves should compel us to act if we notice someone we love, family,
co-worker, neighbour, suddenly, for example, giving away personal treasured
items, speaking ways not part of their normal discourse, revealing they are
depressed, overly anxious, lacking hope, posting hints on social media.

Our loving, compassionate action may well prevent another
tragedy.

Charity is the total self-gift to other remembering: “If I
give a little, it costs a lot. Give a lot, it costs a little. Give everything,
it costs nothing at all.” {word of Melkite Archbishop Joseph Raya [1916-2005]}

A major contributing factor to self-murder, or assisted
self-murder, is as a society we have forgotten the difference between pain and
suffering.

So much so that in 1984, seeking to remind us of the
difference, St. John Paul II wrote an apostolic letter: Salvifici Doloris [On
the Christian Meaning of Human Suffering]: …..interior maturity and spiritual
greatness in suffering are certainly the result of a particular conversion and
cooperation with the grace of the Crucified Redeemer. It is he himself who acts
at the heart of human sufferings through his Spirit of truth, through the
consoling Spirit. It is he who transforms, in a certain sense, the very
substance of the spiritual life, indicating for the person who suffers a place
close to himself. …… Suffering is, in itself, an experience of evil. But Christ
has made suffering the firmest basis of the definitive good, namely the good of
eternal salvation. By his suffering on the Cross, Christ reached the very roots
of evil, of sin and death…… ….slowly but effectively, Christ leads into this
world, into this Kingdom of the Father, suffering man, in a certain sense
through the very heart of his suffering. For suffering cannot be transformed
and changed by a grace from outside, but from within. And Christ through his
own salvific suffering is very much present in every human suffering and can
act from within that suffering by the powers of his Spirit of truth, his
consoling Spirit. [op. cit. Ch. VI, para: 26]

Pain is treatable, both physical and emotional pain, while
the suffering aspect of pain is a gift to embraced, in and with Christ.

Let us not however forget that it is an act of authentic
self-love to avail ourselves of any moral means to ease pain.

People who self-murder do not opt per se for death as much
as they opt for an end to the pain.

…..although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self
is being renewed day by day. For this momentary light affliction is producing
for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to what
is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is
unseen is eternal. [2 Cor. 4:16-18]

Jesus said, “I have come that they might have life and have
it abundantly” (John 10:10).

Let us pray for our brothers and sisters who are in the most
alone moment that they will hear Jesus knocking at the door of their being
[cf.Rev.3:20], open to Him, allow Him to fill them with His light and love.